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Revenge on Sydney FC's minds: Arnold

Russell Jackson

Central Coast coach Graham Arnold is expecting Sydney FC to have revenge on their minds when the A-League-leading Mariners face the Sky Blues at Allianz Stadium on Thursday night.

Bottom-placed Sydney were embarrassed 7-2 by the Mariners in their last encounter in round five.

Sydney have since replaced coach Ian Crook with Arnold's friend Frank Farina and the Mariners' boss has enormous respect for the new Sky Blues' mentor who is in charge of his third game with the battling glamour club.

"Frankie ... one thing about his teams is they're well organised and he'll get them fired up," Arnold said.

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"There'll probably be a bit of talk in the dressing room about revenge after the last occasion we played them.

"We've got to make sure that we're on our game."

Arnold insists his team won't be dwelling on the 7-2 rout.

"It's a whole new occasion. That night, we were red hot and playing at home," he said.

"They're at home this time and they've got a different manager in charge now.

"Frankie is a wonderful coach and there's no doubt that Sydney will end up getting up the table and we've just got to try and make sure it's not tomorrow night."

Sydney FC star Alessandro Del Piero looks to have overcome his hamstring troubles with the Italian training more than 30 minutes longer than his teammates on Boxing Day.

Del Piero said the 7-2 thumping, which he missed because of injury, was just one of those things football throws up.

"Sometimes happens ... everything is wrong for you and good for the opposition," he said.

Del Piero, who played 90 minutes in last week's 2-1 loss to Newcastle, thrilled a big crowd of Sydney FC faithful at training on Wednesday by slotting free-kicks from the edge of the area before working on some left foot shooting.

"This week is good," said Del Piero of his right hamstring.

But he said there was no hiding from the fact Sydney are battling.

"We are in trouble for sure because a lot of losses and injuries and everything that has happened from the start of the season," he said.

"This is not an excuse for us. We have in front of us the opportunity to change our future."

The Sky Blues will again be without injured defender Pascal Bosschaart (calf) and midfielder Paul Reid (adductor) but will be boosted by the return of Jason Culina.

Farina, who has blasted his players following losses to Western Sydney and then Newcastle last week, has been pleased with the response from his troops ahead of the Mariners clash.

"It's not nice for a player to cop a verbal lashing but, when it's deserved, it will happen and it was deserved last week and the week before (Western Sydney).

"They're professional footballers and they've got to react in the right way and I think they have done this week and hopefully that will show in the game on Thursday."